| 1 | And it cometh to pass, after [some] days, in the days of wheat-harvest, that Samson looketh after his wife, with a kid of the goats, and saith, `I go in unto my wife, to the inner chamber;` and her father hath not permitted him to go in, |
| 2 | and her father saith, I certainly said, that thou didst certainly hate her, and I give her to thy companion; is not her sister -- the young one -- better than she? Let her be, I pray thee, to thee, instead of her.` |
| 3 | And Samson saith of them, `I am more innocent this time than the Philistines, though I am doing with them evil.` |
| 4 | And Samson goeth and catcheth three hundred foxes, and taketh torches, and turneth tail unto tail, and putteth a torch between the two tails, in the midst, |
| 5 | and kindleth fire in the torches, and sendeth [them] out into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burneth [it] from heap even unto standing corn, even unto vineyard -- olive-yard. |
| 6 | And the Philistines say, `Who hath done this?` And they say, `Samson, son-in-law of the Timnite, because he hath taken away his wife, and giveth her to his companion;` and the Philistines go up, and burn her and her father with fire. |
| 7 | And Samson saith to them, `Though ye do thus, nevertheless I am avenged on you, and afterwards I cease!` |
| 8 | And he smiteth them hip and thigh -- a great smiting, and goeth down and dwelleth in the cleft of the rock Etam. |
| 9 | And the Philistines go up, and encamp in Judah, and are spread out in Lehi, |
| 10 | and the men of Judah say, `Why have ye come up against us?` and they say, `To bind Samson we have come up, to do to him as he hath done to us.` |
| 11 | And three thousand men of Judah go down unto the cleft of the rock Etam, and say to Samson, `Hast thou now known that the Philistines are rulers over us? and what [is] this thou hast done to us?` And he saith to them, `As they did to me, so I did to them.` |
| 12 | And they say to him, `To bind thee we have come down -- to give thee into the hand of the Philistines.` And Samson saith to them, `Swear to me, lest ye fall upon me yourselves.` |
| 13 | And they speak to him, saying, No, but we certainly bind thee, and have given thee into their hand, and we certainly do not put thee to death;` and they bind him with two thick bands, new ones, and bring him up from the rock. |
| 14 | He hath come unto Lehi -- and the Philistines have shouted at meeting him -- and the Spirit of Jehovah prospereth over him, and the thick bands which [are] on his arms are as flax which they burn with fire, and his bands are wasted from off his hands, |
| 15 | and he findeth a fresh jaw-bone of an ass, and putteth forth his hand and taketh it, and smiteth with it -- a thousand men. |
| 16 | And Samson saith, `With a jaw-bone of the ass -- an ass upon asses -- with a jaw-bone of the ass I have smitten a thousand men.` |
| 17 | And it cometh to pass when he finisheth speaking, that he casteth away the jaw-bone out of his hand, and calleth that place Ramath-Lehi; |
| 18 | and he thirsteth exceedingly, and calleth unto Jehovah, and saith, `Thou -- Thou hast given by the hand of Thy servant this great salvation; and now, I die with thirst, and have fallen into the hand of the uncircumcised.` |
| 19 | And God cleaveth the hollow place which [is] in Lehi, and waters come out of it, and he drinketh, and his spirit cometh back, and he reviveth; therefore hath [one] called its name `The fountain of him who is calling,` which [is] in Lehi unto this day. |
| 20 | And he judgeth Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years. |
